Hits and Misses, Feb. 26, 2013: Last year's salmon haul way up, and 2013 looking good

PRIZED CATCH California's commercial salmon-fishing crews enjoyed their best season in eight years in 2012, unloading a whopping 214,808 king salmon to wholesalers over the course of the summer long season, the most since nearly 341,000 chinook were hooked in 2005, according to just released numbers from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. That was good news for the small businessmen and women who ply the waters of the Monterey Bay for the prized fish and who were shut out for two seasons in the late 2000s. It was also good news for the wholesalers and the bait and tackle shops that depend on commercial and recreational salmon fishermen for their livelihoods. Consumers also got a steady diet of a great-tasting, sustainable, homegrown product. The best news of all? The fish numbers suggest the 2013 season will be another good one.

MARKET ON THE MOVE? A look at the latest home-sale numbers for Santa Cruz County suggests a housing market on the move. Inventory is way down, so the good listings are moving fast, and going for above asking price. That's a hit for sure, as a healthy real estate market is a big part of a healthy economy, and prices certainly are rising. But we would like to add that there's a flip side to this. Will it be a hit when prices again start to move out of the range of a good many county residents? This downturn has been an unprecedented buying opportunity for many homebuyers, especially with interest rates at historic lows. We'd like to see a happy medium, a real estate market that moves a bit more slowly, but follows a steady upward trajectory. Too much to ask? Maybe, seeing as we're a desirable beachside spot right next to the cash-rich Silicon Valley, but we can hope.

MISSES

ART THEFT For being a small coastal city tucked away on California's Central Coast, Santa Cruz sure produces its share of iconic images -- the O'Neill logo, Santa Cruz Skateboards' red dot logo, and the cartoonishly grotesque work of graphic artists Jim and Jimbo Phillips, famous for their Screaming Hand logo, also owned by Santa Cruz Skateboards. Their work is so well-known, it's hard to know what fashion designer Jeremy Scott was thinking when he apparently "borrowed" images from the father-and-son team and incorporated them into his clothing, all without permission. That's put Scott square in the sights of a host of Santa Cruzans, some of them artists themselves, demanding Scott own up to the artistic theft. We'd agree. Side-by-side comparisons suggest this was no accident. The president of Santa Cruz Skateboards said the company is weighing its next step. This dustup isn't going away.

FLOWER HEIST File this one under numbskull criminals. A Watsonville man was busted last week for allegedly swiping two pallets of long-stemmed roses from a flower company where he used to work. He apparently figured he could sell the flowers for an easy profit as Valentine's Day was approaching. Company managers apparently connected the dots pretty quickly, though, and those dots led them to Saul Rodriguez, 35. The other problem with the plan? The notoriously finicky flowers were swiped two weeks before Valentine's, so Rodriguez was soon stuck with loads of rotting roses, so he dumped them in a ditch of Highway 152. This rose heist was a thorny mess from the start.